Project Poncho: Daily Driven Muscle Car

1963 Corvette Daytona Blue is very nice too. 
 

Bmw technoviolet

In reply to budget_bandit :

I get that.  I thought you were looking at either orange or purple and other colors were off the table.

If you want to branch out a little, GM colors Tuxedo Black (Pontiac apparently called it Starlight Black), Ermine White, or Cardinal Red all work for me. 

In reply to pres589 (djronnebaum) :

I was, and after i tested it on the door my mind is pretty much made up on purple

Dusterbd13-michael said:

Bmw technoviolet

This is the way

LCA bushings installed, and LCAs installed. 1 of 2 lower ball joints installed. The passenger side was trying to go in crooked so I stopped for the night. 

Back at it

3 of 4 window channel pieces trimmed/welded (not fully welded, and not ground, but mostly welded)

No work on the Ventura tonight, i helped a coworker with his '65 mustang restoration, and he sold me a set of seats for $125. I dig the way they look

gratuitous Mustang:

Well I spent some time today fighting with the front coil springs. I'm trying to compress a 16" free length spring to about 12" to install it, which feels like a lot of compression. I was also having issues getting the coil ends to line up with the pockets in the subframe and the A-arm, seems like one is out about 20deg.

Had to bail early to meet with a realtor, we're looking at a few houses tonight

Okay how the berkley am i supposed to get the springs installed when the parts of the compressor are too big to take out once the spring is installed? I had to reset the compressor with the spring installed, compress it and pull the whole thing back out. FML

In reply to budget_bandit :

You're using the internal type? Pic of setup?

Is that the correct spring?

In reply to budget_bandit :

Take the internal spring compressor apart and stick the threaded rod down through the upper shock mount hole in the frame. compress spring up into pocket in frame until you can get your ball joint connected.

gsettle said:

In reply to budget_bandit :

Take the internal spring compressor apart and stick the threaded rod down through the upper shock mount hole in the frame. compress spring up into pocket in frame until you can get your ball joint connected.

Almost certainly this is your solution. 

Be careful.

We give advice, but we arent there to see how its actually working out... :)

here's the compressor I rented. Unfortunatelt the hooks and the "plate" are too thick to fit out of the spring once installed.

Can i just drill a hole in a peice of flat stock and use that to pull the spring up in the frame pocket? Will it be strong enough?

If that threaded rod fits in the upper shock hole, just stick it down through and just use the flat piece on the left of the above photo to pull the spring up

My favorite way to solve this is usually to cut the spring shorter...

Barring that solution, I usually have to hammer the lower plate back out of the spring. (once the spring is contained in place)

In reply to gsettle :

that flat piece is too thick to fit out of the spring once it's compressed in the A-Arm

Well you might have to make some from steel plate then... Use the thickest peice that you can still remove.. I made some from 1/4" once with a slotted hole but it was sketchy 

Well, after a lot of to-do I finally have a spring installed!

I first tried making a lower plate out of some steel angle I had laying around, and coming down from the shock hole with some 1/2-13 all thread. The angle wasn't even sort of strong enough, and promptly started deforming. Sketch. I abandoned that idea quickly.

Next I tried using the "hooks" that came with the tool i rented, and coming down from the shock hole again. That got the spring in pretty easily, but there wasn't enough room to get the hooks out through the shock hole in the control arm. So i cut the pin out and made it a seperable assembly and pulled it out.

success!

Huzzah! Thanks to all who gave advice. Passenger side spring, and both side brakes to follow shortly. Goal is back down on front wheels today. Then i can jack the back up and prep for underpaint!

Hell yeah!!

Hell yeah berkeley yeah!

Well, i can't find the spindle nuts i ordered..so enjoy part of the new hotness!

Back down on 4 wheels again (i'll promptly be jacking the rear end up now that the front suspension is in)